IDE Ribbon cable Curiosity

I recently clean installed my OS (XP). When I do this I always disconnect
all of the devices and peripherals except the HD, floppy, and CD. Then add
the other devices back after the OS is installed. But when I disconnected my
slaved Zip drive from the ribbon cable that connects to my hard drive the
BIOS could not find the hard drive. I had to connect the Zip to do the job.
It could find my CD after disconnecting the slaved DVD. And yes, the slave
drive is connected to the slave connector (clearly marked) on the cable.
I've never seen this happen before. I do, however, have a used "extra long"
ribbon cable that I picked up in a shop to connect the hard drive to the Zip
in my Sonata box which are 8 inches or so apart. Could it be the cable? Even
old 40 wire cables worked fine on the master if the slave was disconnected.

Howdy!

"BP" wrote in message
...
I recently clean installed my OS (XP). When I do this I always disconnect
all of the devices and peripherals except the HD, floppy, and CD. Then add
the other devices back after the OS is installed. But when I disconnected
my
slaved Zip drive from the ribbon cable that connects to my hard drive the
BIOS could not find the hard drive. I had to connect the Zip to do the
job.
It could find my CD after disconnecting the slaved DVD. And yes, the slave
drive is connected to the slave connector (clearly marked) on the cable.
I've never seen this happen before. I do, however, have a used "extra
long"
ribbon cable that I picked up in a shop to connect the hard drive to the
Zip
in my Sonata box which are 8 inches or so apart. Could it be the cable?
Even
old 40 wire cables worked fine on the master if the slave was
disconnected.

Wild guess - your hard disk is a Western Digital set to "Master".
That setting is for "Master, with Slave". You really should be using an
ATA66/100/133 cable (80 conductor) and the drives set for "Cable Select" -
but if you unplug the Zip in the future, pull the jumper on the WD and store
it for when you reconnect the Zip drive.

If it's not a WD, check the jumpers to see if there's a difference
between "Master - Only Drive" and "Master- With Slave".

And if not, I have no idea. But I've seen this quite often with
WDs.

RwP

"Ralph Wade Phillips" wrote in message
...
Howdy!

"BP" wrote in message
...
I recently clean installed my OS (XP). When I do this I always disconnect
all of the devices and peripherals except the HD, floppy, and CD. Then
add
the other devices back after the OS is installed. But when I disconnected
my
slaved Zip drive from the ribbon cable that connects to my hard drive the
BIOS could not find the hard drive. I had to connect the Zip to do the
job.
It could find my CD after disconnecting the slaved DVD. And yes, the
slave
drive is connected to the slave connector (clearly marked) on the cable.
I've never seen this happen before. I do, however, have a used "extra
long"
ribbon cable that I picked up in a shop to connect the hard drive to the
Zip
in my Sonata box which are 8 inches or so apart. Could it be the cable?
Even
old 40 wire cables worked fine on the master if the slave was
disconnected.

Wild guess - your hard disk is a Western Digital set to "Master".
That setting is for "Master, with Slave". You really should be using an
ATA66/100/133 cable (80 conductor) and the drives set for "Cable Select" -
but if you unplug the Zip in the future, pull the jumper on the WD and
store
it for when you reconnect the Zip drive.

If it's not a WD, check the jumpers to see if there's a difference
between "Master - Only Drive" and "Master- With Slave".

And if not, I have no idea. But I've seen this quite often with
WDs.

Bingo! I got the WD. It's set to master. I'll bet you are right. That would
explain it. Thanks!
I'm looking into round cables now....

BP wrote:
"Ralph Wade Phillips" wrote in message
...
Howdy!

"BP" wrote in message
...
I recently clean installed my OS (XP). When I do this I always
disconnect all of the devices and peripherals except the HD,
floppy, and CD. Then add
the other devices back after the OS is installed. But when I
disconnected my slaved Zip drive from the ribbon cable that
connects to my hard drive the BIOS could not find the hard drive. I
had to connect the Zip to do the job. It could find my CD after
disconnecting the slaved DVD. And yes, the slave
drive is connected to the slave connector (clearly marked) on the
cable. I've never seen this happen before. I do, however, have a
used "extra long" ribbon cable that I picked up in a shop to
connect the hard drive to the Zip in my Sonata box which are 8
inches or so apart. Could it be the cable? Even old 40 wire cables
worked fine on the master if the slave was disconnected.

Wild guess - your hard disk is a Western Digital set to
"Master". That setting is for "Master, with Slave". You really
should be using an ATA66/100/133 cable (80 conductor) and the drives
set for "Cable Select" - but if you unplug the Zip in the future,
pull the jumper on the WD and store
it for when you reconnect the Zip drive.

If it's not a WD, check the jumpers to see if there's a
difference between "Master - Only Drive" and "Master- With Slave".

And if not, I have no idea. But I've seen this quite often
with WDs.

Bingo! I got the WD. It's set to master. I'll bet you are right. That
would explain it. Thanks!
I'm looking into round cables now....

glad it worked out for you.

now, Google is over there --------

look and you will find quality cables unlike that lazy ****toad from a few
weeks ago